Pros:

Cons:

The PSP is often criticized for being nothing more than a portable PlayStation 2. Then again, it's sometimes praised for the very same reason. There's no denying that it brings an impressive amount of horsepower to the previously underpowered realm of portables, and at their best the games can look nearly as good as their PS2 counterparts.

That said, a library of ports and clones is less than ideal, and many games suffer from the PSP's pokey boot times, lower button count, and lack of dual analog sticks. EA's new Medal of Honor Heroes neatly encapsulates all of these issues. It largely succeeds in capturing Medal of Honor's distinct (if not unique) brand of vaguely realistic shooting, but at the same time it loses some playability and fun thanks to the PSP's inherent shortcomings. It's still a decent game, though, despite its lack of major thrills.

All the Features, Half the Speed

It's actually inaccurate to call Heroes a port, as it features an all-new single-player campaign that'll take you to places you haven't seen in the previous games. That said, the general look and feel of the gameplay is nearly identical to that of the other Medal of Honor titles. It's not a font of originality, but it's also not really meant to be. It's intended to give Medal of Honor fans a portable fix, and that it does.

Heroes is essentially the midpoint between arcade-style and "realistic" first-person shooters. The weapons look and sound authentic and your G.I. isn't terribly fast or agile. Luckily for him, he does have superhuman stamina, and can take quite a few bullets before kicking the bucket. He can also instantly heal by merely running over an enemy's dropped health kit. No wonder the Allies prevailed -- they were a bunch of freakin' superheroes.

Medal of Honor and its ilk are known for heavily scripted action sequences (as demonstrated in just about every Omaha Beach level ever made) but Heroes focuses less on these in favor of more straightforward objectives. A majority of missions have you securing a series of checkpoints, while a few get a little fancy and ask you to plant explosives at a series of checkpoints. Despite the graphical differences between locales, over time the missions -- and action -- begin to feel kind of samey.

This being an FPS, the action is the game's main selling point, the core of its enjoyability. It does a decent job of offering up some mindless blasting. However, the quality and intensity of the action is ultimately hobbled by the PSP's controls. The main control scheme has you aiming with the four face buttons, and this is simply not as fast, smooth, or intuitive as aiming with an analog stick. (Another scheme does let you aim with the analog nub, but I found that prohibitively hard to get used to doing with my left hand.) Given that console FPS games already take a hit in controls compared to their PC counterparts, degrading the controls yet another step really puts a low ceiling on the complexity of situations that this game can throw at you. Heavy lock-on and auto-aim compensate for the lack of precise control, but also greatly simplifies the run 'n gun experience. Combined with the leisurely walking speed, it's just not a very intense shooter.